He always felt that his greatest achievement as president of the I.L.A. was the guaranteed annual income he won for union members, beginning in 1964. This allowed hundreds of longshoremen to collect as much as $32,000 a year for doing no work after their jobs were eliminated by containerization, a process in which goods are shipped in large containers so that the need for workers to load and unload is substantially reduced.

Although costly, the guaranteed income was preferred by both the shipping industry and the union to the old shape-up when dock work was day labor, when 7 to 10 men would bid for each job each morning and who got the job was often determined by kickbacks and violence.

Stock markets are also closed Good Friday, which I always find odd for the US (though enjoyably so). Back in public school, in the durn foreigner country I grew up, we got vacation both Good Friday and Easter Monday.